The Vicks Experiment

A couple of months ago, I received an email forward from my friend Russell. The email claimed that you would could get relief from a nighttime cough if you smeared Vicks VapoRub on your feet and then covered your feet with socks, primarily to protect the bedding. The writer - which of course wasn't Russell, just for clarification - claimed this had been discovered and tested by the "Canada Research council" and was 100% effective.

As I do when I get emails I like, I went over to Snopes to check it out. I found it right away and there was the email, word for word. Go and read it if you're interested but the long and short of it is that while the National Research Council of Canada has denied doing any such testing of Vicks, Snopes have listed the claim as "undetermined", mainly due to anecdotal testimony and the endorsement of "people in the health care industry" going back some years.

I have to admit I was very skeptical of the claim. I have a fair understanding of basic human anatomy and aside from its construction there is nothing special about the foot. Yes, it supports a hell of a lot of weight (some more than others) and the sheer number of bones is pretty mind boggling. If something goes wrong with your foot it's generally not an easy fix. However, there is no special connection between your foot and any other place in the body. Circulation can be pretty poor given it's quite a way from your heart - see if you can find the pulse on the top of your foot. It can be hard to find unless you know where to look, unlike ones closer to your truck. By what mechanism would Vicks VapoRub get from sock clad feet to your chest? After all, it's a vapour rub - it's the vapours that do the trick. Living with a brother who as a kid was prone to chesty types of coughs I was introduced to Vicks very young and I never remember our mother putting it onto his feet. And this was a woman who put whiskey on our gums to ease teething pain.

Within a few weeks, after never ever hearing this claim before, I suddenly read it in several other places including the magazine Her Majesty's preschool puts out. I still couldn't work out the "how", but then I was given an opportunity to test it, Mythbusters style, when the winter lurgy came to town. I had nothing to loose but a cough.

I did put it on Her Majesty's feet and she enjoyed it, requesting it for several nights. However, since I also smeared it all across her chest and throat - the place the manufacturer suggests putting it - I can't say putting it onto her feet worked. In fact, their entire bedroom smelled like Vicks for about a week. Her cough was lessened, but she was not what I was call cough-free. She did sleep, though. I did not put it on Clive's feet, merely his chest, as he won't keep socks on when he's in bed. He, too, slept. Inconclusive at best. When it was my turn to start coughing and hacking and discharging enough mucus to empty several tissue boxes, I used myself as the guinea pig. I grabbed my jar of Vicks and a pair of thick socks before slathering it on. I didn't take any other medications beforehand nor did I put the Vicks anywhere else. I promptly washed my hands when I was finished and waited for the "warm-blanket" feeling to envelop me and for my cough to stop.

I got nothing. In fact, 30 minutes later my feet felt like ice and I was still coughing and sniffling like I was before. I did get a few minutes relief from my stuffy nose, but that was likely due to the proximity of the open jar of the rub to my nasal passages. But when the fumes dissipated I was as stuffy as ever. In my experiment, putting Vicks VapoRub on my feet to stop my cough was 100% ineffective.

And it's easy to see why. The vapours have no way to get from your foot to your nose/mouth, where they are inhaled. This is why Vicks also sells a Vicks Stick (that's what it's called here), about the size of a tube of lip balm that you hold to your nose and inhale - giving temporary relief to a stuffy nose and sparing those around you hours of menthol fumes - and not Vicks foot pads. The oils contained in the wax aren't absorbed into the blood and magically transported to the lungs. If that were the case you'd put medicated patches onto your feet, not on your arms or chest as is the case now, and I would think Vicks would jump on this faster than anybody. Profit is a good motivator.

If people claim it works for them, I would think it's the placebo effect more than anything. Or they've taken other medication beforehand - it can take 30 minutes or more for them to kick in - but are attributing their relief to the Vicks they've put on a few minutes ago. I can see no logical reason for it to work, and if someone with a better understanding of human anatomy and physiology can explain it to me I'm all ears! Try it for yourself if you like, but I would think you'd be far better off putting it where it can do its job - on the chest and throat - and getting a good nights sleep.